'John Tognolini has been a rare voice and witness for justice in Australia, chronicling the struggles of Indigenous Australians and veterans and the deceptions of power from behind the facades of a society that prefers not to know. I salute him.'
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Thursday, March 20, 2008

British Judge Paul Walker declared in a London courtroom today that the freezing of US$12 billion in assets of the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA shall be revoked.

The decision is a major defeat for the world’s largest oil company, ExxonMobil, which had won the temporary asset freeze on February 7th in a dispute with PDVSA over the nationalisation of Exxon’s stake in a Venezuelan Orinoco River Belt project, known as Cerro Negro.

“We can say that we have won another battle, another victory for our people, for our government, and the most important is that it is another victory for our country”, declared Venezuelan energy minister Rafael Ramirez regarding the decision. The Venezuelan ambassador in London, Samuel Moncada, called the decision “the beginning of the end of ExxonMobil’s harassment of Venezuela”.

Moncada also said his country is “pleased” that the British court “refused to be utilised as an instrument of Exxon to impose itself in the international scene against Venezuela”. “The important thing for our country is that the campaign, the assault of lies and chaos [with which] they tried to install anxiety in our country and they tried to say that our national industry was broken, this was all discounted, because it was all a lie … it was part of, once again, this manipulation that they have forged against our people”, Ramirez said in an interview with the Venezuelan government television station VTV.

ExxonMobil’s lawyer Catherine Otton-Goulder, declined to comment on the decision. Judge Walker, who postponed the decision twice since the week-long case began February 28, will give a full explanation of his decision in coming days. PDVSA had argued that the London court does not have legal jurisdiction over the assets of a nationally owned foreign company that does not operate in Britain.

ExxonMobil argued the contrary, and had already won a court order in New York freezing $315 million in PDVSA assets in February. As a result of the case, Exxon is required to pay for PDVSA’s legal fees, which it says amounted to about $766,000. Also, PDVSA will pursue compensation for other damages, such as the devaluation of its bonds, increases in borrowing costs, and its inability to invest in refineries during the freeze, according to PDVSA lawyer George Pollack.

Meanwhile, PDVSA will regain full control over its assets in Britain, but the asset freezes ExxonMobil obtained in the Dutch Antilles, Holland, and New York will remain for now. “I think all Venezuelans can feel proud”, proclaimed Ramirez, vowing that the government will continue defending the “principles and sovereignty” of the nation against foreign aggression. He also assured that PDVSA would do all it can to clean up the image of Venezuela in the wake of Exxon’s actions. Ramírez had called Exxon’s efforts “judicial terrorism” in February because they went outside of the arbitration underway in the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and sought to damage PDVSA’s reputation and credibility even though Exxon was offered indemnity.

“We have defeated ExxonMobil”, Ramirez elatedly announced, adding that “the decision is 100% in favor of Venezuela, the allegations of Exxon were discounted”, but said he would wait until the judge fully explains his decision before making any further comments, according to ABN news reports. Now, ExxonMobil and PDVSA will return to the process of ICSID arbitration where they had left off, Ramirez explained. Following the nationalisation of the Orinoco River Belt oil reserves in May 2007, the Venezuelan government required that the state hold at least a 60% stake in oil projects. It nationalised the stakes of several companies, including the Italian ENI, with which it reached an agreement for $700 million in compensation last month. Exxon, however, rejected Venezuela’s compensation offer of $750 million for a 41.6% stake in the “Cerro Negro” project.

The offer was based on the value of ExxonMobil’s stake according to PDVSA records at the time of nationalisation, PDVSA claimed, but ExxonMobil sought projected profits from the project and demanded arbitration. The maximum indemnity Exxon had attempted to negotiate was $5 billion before pursuing the $12 billion asset freeze, according to an announcement by Ramirez to the Venezuelan National Assembly in February.

The disparity in compensation claims prompted accusations that ExxonMobil’s efforts were part of an “economic war” against Venezuela. Since the nationalisations, state participation in the Orinoco River Belt has increased from 39% to 78%, and Venezuela remains Latin America’s largest producer of crude, with nearly half of its oil exported to the United States.

There is no sign that Venezuela’s termination of its business relationship with ExxonMobil on February 12 will be reversed, although PDVSA will honour its contract with the Chalmette refinery it co-owns with ExxonMobil. PDVSA and Mobil became business partners in 1997, before Mobil was acquired by Exxon. During this time period of the 1990s, known as the “Petroleum Opening” era, the 1976 nationalisation of Venezuelan oil was gradually weakened and PDVSA was granted autonomy, converting the company into what Ramirez called a “Trojan Horse” for international capital.

In contrast, the administration of President Hugo Chavez has promoted what it calls “petroleum sovereignty”. In addition to nationalising foreign controlled oil production projects, this policy has included channeling over $30 billion of PDVSA’s oil profits into Venezuela’s National Development Fund (FONDEN) between 2004 and 2007. The funds were invested in infrastructure projects, expansion of the Barrio Adentro health care system, environmental cleanup, and education, among other programs.

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Journalists and Writers I Like.

"Bread and work and love, the poor man’s trinity, and by all three needs they chain him down." Christina Stead 1902-1983 Seven Poor Men of Sydney

"Every government is run by liars and nothing should be believed." I.F.Stone 1907-89

"I have made more friends for American culture than the State Department. Certainly I have made fewer enemies, but that isn't very difficult." Arthur Miler 1915-2005

"In times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act." George Orwell 1903-50

"It is not enough for journalists to see themselves as mere messengers without understandig the hidden agendas of the message that surrounds it." John Pilger

"Lots of people who complained about us receiving the MBE received theirs for heroism in the war - for killing people. We received ours for entertaining other people. I'd say we deserve ours more." Joesph Heller 1923-99

"Media is just a word that has come to mean bad journalism." Graham Greene 1904-91

"My experience in the First World War and now the Second World War [his son Barney was killed in the Battle of Singapore] changed my outlook on things. It is hard to believe that there is a God. I feel the Bible is a book written by man but for the purpose of preying on a person’s conscience, and to confuse him. Anyone who taken part in a bayonet charge (and I have) [Gallipoli], and has managed to retain his proper senses, must doubt the truth of the Bible and the powers of God, if one exists. And considering the many hundreds of different religions that there are in this world of ours, and the fact that many religions have caused terrible wars and hatreds throughout the world, and that many religions that have hoarded tremendous wealth and property while people inside and outside religion are starving , it is difficult to remain a believer. No Sir, there is no God, it is only a myth." Albert Facey 1894-1982 A Fortunate Life

"Now take my case. I’m twenty-nine and have two brothers—one in the Liberal Party and one serving six years for rape and arson. My sister Peg is on the streets and Dad lives off her earnings. Mum is pregnant by the boarder and because of this Dad won’t marry her. Last night I got engaged to an ex-prostitute and I wish to be fair to her: should I tell her about my brother in the Liberal Party." David Ireland 1927- The Unknown Industrial Prisoner

"Prime Minster Howard I’ve heard You met George Bush and the Pope too, I understand, Oh I liked the Pope much better, I only had to kiss his hand." L’Amour Denis Kevans 1939-2005

"The first law of journalism-to confirm existing prejudice rather than contradict it." Alexander Cockburn

"The Labour Party [ALP], starting with a band of inspired Socialists, degenerated into a vast machine for capturing political power, but did not know how to use the power when attained except for the profit of individuals[...] Such is the history of all Labour organisations in Australia, and not because they are Australian , but because they are Labour..." Victor Gordon Childe 1892-1957, How Labour Governs

"The trouble with a free market economy is that it requires so many policemen to make it work." Neal Ascherson, 1932- Games with the Shadows, Policing the Marketplace.

"The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag. I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket. There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its "finger men" to point out enemies, its "muscle men" to destroy enemies, its "brain men" to plan war preparations, and a "Big Boss" Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism. It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty- three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. " Major General Smedley Butler,1881-1940

"What is the crime of robbing a bank compared with the crime of founding one." Bertolt Brecht 1898-1956

"Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policemen or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more to say?" Kurt Vonnegut 1922-2007

[Battler]" a conscientious person working against many odds to make a living; one whose life is a constant struggle.’ Battlers maybe men or women; black or white. They rarely deal with racism (the negative side of our tradition) because they sympathise with anyone facing adversity or unfair criticism. The term ‘battler’ is a state of mind-a traditional attitude which goes back to the convict era, when the battler was on a flogging to nothing but fiddled around the rules and held his masters in contempt. The battlers are aware that they are being lied to by....politicians; and they suspect that Keating’s warning that Australia could become a banana republic is in fact, happening before their eyes." Frank Hardy 1917-1994. Retreat Australia Fair 1990

I don't respect the law; I have a total irreverence for anything connected with society except that which makes the roads safer, the beer stronger, the food cheaper and the old men and old women warmer in the winter and happier in the summer. Brendan Behan 1923-64

“I do what I do, and write what I write, without calculating what is worth what and so on. Fortunately, I am not a banker or an accountant. I feel that there is a time when a political statement needs to be made and I make it.” Arundhati Roy